Breaking Through
by Overworkedunderwhelmed
Summary: Jemma and Fitz are in for a long night...


Jemma sighed, disengaging the seal on the flange and set about re-adjusting everything with the pressure now mostly abated.

They had finally settled into a rhythm. Sense and order was a welcome relief after the frenzy of Rose's birth, the still persistent waves of hormones, and a truly wretched bout of colic. The little darling was now sleeping much longer stretches, and Fitz had turned in early to prepare for their daughter's first night time feeding.

And she-blessedly-could get a whole four hours of rest before biology would force her to wake up.

Jemma rushed over to the freezer to stockpile everything away and stash the late night equipment away in the fridge for a more rigorous cleaning and sterilization later.

She slid beneath the covers next to Fitz, listening to the silence and static over the monitor with a smile. For now, she rather desperately needed those precious few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, her brain seemed quite unwilling to cooperate.

At least for now, their physical safety wasn't her primary concern. Radcliffe had finally done right by all of them, finally creating believable pair of Life Model Decoys to go out into the world and mask the fact that they had been cloistered in their lab here. At last update, this set of decoys had thankfully not been bent on world domination, and they could focus their precious few waking hours with the little peanut tucked into her carrier as she and Fitz alternatively walked her about the lab while brainstorming a whole slew of projects for Shield. All from the comfort and security of their home/basement laboratory in Perthshire.

True that most of the house space was actually below ground. The Director had also insisted on a physical check in at least once a week, but Jemma detected May's hand in the cover when the agent also appeared carrying a grocery drop off with the occasional extra pairs of onesies and blankets.

Purely out of caution, Jemma was still avoiding most of her chemicals, instead opting to help run simulations and plot out future projects.

She was sure Fitz thought she was being a bit overzealous and overprotective, but so many things had next to no testing for safety nearby little ones. She was just unwilling to compromise on anything when it came to anything that might adversely affect little Rose.

Jemma was just finally drifting off when the first cry pierced through the darkness.

Her eyes snapped open, and she groaned. "Oh no!"

* * *

"Not the diaper. No rooting." Fitz heard Jemma worrying over the monitor, as awareness hit him. He was even reasonably sure that she was pacing, as she had for years with a particularly troubling problem.

His eyes slowly slid open. He squinted uselessly at the to the telltale red numbers of the alarm, until his eyes finally acclimated. It was near to midnight and Jemma should have been asleep an hour ago. Rosalind wasn't really even due to be awake for a few hours more.

"Nothing on your fingers or toes." Jemma breathed. "That's a relief, Rose."

Fitz turned his head towards the monitor, the temperature readings were all within a comfortable range, but if Jemma had just checked, little Rosalind was out of her sleepsack at least for the moment. He mentally did a bit of math and crawled over to Jemma's edge of the bed, pressing the button that would send his voice over into the other room. "Should I grab her bottle?"

Static followed for a few spare moments.

"A small one, perhaps. It might help settle her down, but I'm not sure she's hungry." Jemma sighed.

Fitz was already out of bed, stepping into a pair of pants on and racing down the hall.

Sadly the bottle warmer would still take a few minutes. He'd have to ponder improvements when his daughter wasn't wailing.

* * *

Jemma swayed in the low light, hefting Rose in her wearable swaddle, and holding her against her chest with Rose's ear pressed against her chest. "Shhhhhhh," she murmured as she paced the room with a sway that usually did the trick to settle her down. It had been so many months, there was no way to tell if it was habit or if it was just the comfort of similarity to the womb that typically settled her.

But, right now, it was not helping in the slightest. Rose was near to inconsolable.

Fitz was breathing hard, when he appeared at the door, bottle in hand. "How is she?"

Jemma moved over to the glider, nodding for Fitz to sit down. "It seems like she won't settle down for me. Maybe you'll have a bit more luck."

He moved quickly, extending his arms as soon as he sat down. Rose cuddled right in, but as he moved the bottle to her mouth, she fussed, forcing it out a bit with her tongue. "Hmmm."

Jemma smiled mistily at the picture of Fitz cuddled in with their daughter, even if Rose would not settle. It was not too long ago that this prospect seemed entirely impossible to ever occur. Honestly, Fitz really was so sweet to help out nearly so much, especially with the overnights. Even if he did seem to possess a near magical ability sleep through most of her cries.

He looked down at Rose and then up at Jemma. "Her onesie is soaked."

Jemma frowned. "I just changed her diaper."

"No," Fitz felt a bit blindly. "It's up near the chest."

"Well," Jemma mulled. "She has been crying. And she has drooled for months without any sign of teeth."

Fitz pressed a cautious finger between Rose's lips and gasped. "Jemma turn on the light."

They all blinked as the overhead lamp kicked on. He had his finger lightly tugging down Rose's lower lip to show one of her lower incisors cutting through the gums.

Jemma had kneeled on the floor beside Fitz to see. "Oh!" she gasped, pressing her own finger against the ridge where the tiniest bit of white peeked through the sadly swollen gums. "My poor little girl."

Rose focused her shockingly blue gaze up at both of her parents, a brief reprieve from the noise. She was seeming amused how both were cooing over her.

Purposed renewed, Jemma stood up. "I'll go rummage what I can to help her."

"No." Fitz ordered, standing and handing Rose off to her. "I'll get it and you cuddle her. Then you need to sleep. She'll have you up again soon enough."

With half of a smile, Jemma rolled her eyes. He was right, if she'd had even half the sleep she normally got, she could probably have diagnosed Rose's problem far sooner. "Go on then."

* * *

When light broke through the curtains the next morning, Jemma and Fitz were both sleeping in their bed surrounded by a veritable pile of half soaked teethers, toys, half damp rags, books, and bottles. Rose was nestled in a bedside bassinet at Jemma's side, asleep.

But only for a little while longer.

Notes:

Baby names in these are all totally nominal until/unless canon decides to prove us otherwise. I opted here to go with a homage name to Rosalind Franklin, the female scientist who actually discovered the DNA structure.

The Tumblr Prompt was: "Drabble. I've seen you are up with a teething kiddo soooo... Fitzsimmons first all nighter with a teething baby."

Thank you, Anon!


End file.
